The military will support efforts by Afghan and American agencies, rather than lead them. It will move antidrug agents by helicopters and cargo planes and assist in planning missions and uncovering targets in a stepped-up war on the trade and the heavily armed forces that protect it.

Under previous guidelines, the American military in Afghanistan was held back from such missions. The 17,000 American troops were authorized to seize or destroy drugs and drug equipment only if they came across them in the course of traditional military activities to capture or kill insurgents and terrorists.

To support the new effort, the Defense Department is requesting $257 million, more than four times the amount last year, in emergency financing for military assistance to the counternarcotics campaign, in addition to the $15.4 million in the Pentagon's budget for fiscal 2005, which began last Oct. 1.
...

In Congressional testimony last May, for example, Mark L. Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group, a humanitarian organization operating in Afghanistan, called on the American-led coalition to "state clearly that one of its missions is counternarcotics and helping Afghan government agencies to destroy the Afghan drug-trafficking problem."

He urged the military to change its rules of engagement to make intervention easier, and also urged increased American financing for Afghan governors who pay local forces to eradicate the poppy crop.

Planners at the Pentagon and at the Central Command, which directs coalition military efforts in Afghanistan, acknowledge that the new tasks will force American commanders to accept some risk in the counterinsurgency effort as they divert personnel and equipment from combating terrorists and guerrillas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/25/politics/25military.html?

i only have one question, well, tons of questions, but one that will get asked right now:

what took them so long?
what took them so long to do anything at all?

the anti-war crowd has been screaming this for years, and now that the pro-war crowd sees the problem, we're supposed to believe that since the pro-war crowd is getting what they want, something done in this case, then we're to be happy?

i'm jus joyous that this paints exactly the picture i want of the republicons who are in charge.